JOliEtGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



to detect tlie compounds of cerium. It will, perhaps, be found, in course 

 of time, that cerium, a metal which, by its chemical properties, resembles 

 iron iu many respects, is not so scarce in nature as we have hitherto 

 been led to suppose. 



A short time ago we read in the Courier de Paris something to this 

 effect : — For some time past the waters of the little bay of Yulcano, 

 at Santorino, have been spoken of as having the property of cleaning 

 the copper-sheathing of vessels ; but this precious quality has not been 

 made use of so much as we should have expected, and since the year 

 1821 the bay has been almost abandoned by ships. Lately, however, 

 experiments have been made to prove the fact anew ; the Solon, a screw- 

 packet-boat, stationed in the Levant, received orders to go to Santorino 

 and remain some hours in the Bay of Vulcano. Although coated with 

 many layers of red-lead, the iron keel of the Solon had collected and 

 fixed an endless number of shells, sea- weeds, zoophytes, &c., so that its 

 course had been notably impeded. But after a short delay in the Bay of 

 Vulcano these shells and seaweeds were detached with ease by the aid 

 of a brush, and a knot an hour more was immediately gained in speed. 

 Three other French ships and two English brigs followed the example of 

 the Solon, and these had coppered keels. The effect was the same on 

 all, and no less surprising than agreeable to the captains of the vessels." 



The cause of this may be thus explained : In recent times a sub- 

 marine island made its appearance within the crater of Santorino-'". In 

 1810 it was still 15 fathoms below the surface of the sea, but in 1830 it 

 had risen to Avithin three or four. It rises steeply, like a great cone, 

 from the bottom of the sea, and the continuous activity of the submarine 

 crater impregnates the surrounding waters with sulphurous and 

 sulphuric acids. The coppered bottoms of ships lying at anchor for a 

 short time in the Bay of Yulcano are cleaned by the acid produced 

 in this natural volcanic process. 



M. de Nordmann, of Helsingford, in Finland, a naturalist dis- 

 tinguished by his scientific expeditions into Caucassia and the Crimea, 

 has just terminated the first two parts of a great work upon the 

 Pceleontology of Southern llussia [Valcontologie de la Riissie 3Ieridionale). 

 The exploration of certain rich fossiliferous deposits that he found near 

 Odessa and in Bessarabia has enabled M. de i^ordmann to make some 

 interesting and important discoveries. His first paper is really a 

 treatise upon fossil bears. To those already known he adds a new 

 variety, Ursus spelceus Odessaliis. He proves, by many and varied con- 

 siderations, that the fossil Ursus speJceus differs essentially —as Cuvier 

 always afiirmed, in spite of the contrary opinion upheld by De Blain- 

 ville — from the existing bear, Ursus ferox. In the second memoir are 

 described and figured (the drawings being made by the author himself) 

 a great number of fossil quadrupeds belonging to the genera Felisj 

 HycBna, Cams, Miistela, Fquus, Sfc. Among them Cams merulmialis, 

 different Solipedes, and a certain number of Eodents are entirely new 

 species. Judging from what the papers say, M. de Nordmann's 



For a figure of this remarkable island and some adjacent ones, see Beudant, 

 Geolocjie, p. 31.— T. L. P. 



